Tuesday, January 30, 2018

A warning about free digital downloads of books

If the deal seems to be good to be true, it probably is.


Recently a writer’s newsletter I subscribe to mentioned that they discovered that some of their books were available for free digital download on some questionable websites. They did not authorize the books to be offered for free. Seriously, what author wants to give their book away for free? Both the publisher and author want to make money on the book, why would they give it away for free? Now occasionally authors do offer a free digital book, but it’s almost always as an incentive to buy another book from them or take a course or seminar they are offering.

Naturally, I was curious to see if my latest book, Backroads and Byways of Upstate New York was available on any of these nefarious websites. I discovered at least a half dozen sites offering a “free” download of the book. Concerned, I contacted my publisher and here’s what my contact had to say:

The book isn’t truly available there; these sites are designed to fool people and install malicious software on their computers. These site creators are merely pretending to have to book files.

So there you have it people, don’t be fooled, you can’t get a digital copy of my book, or any book for that matter, for free, especially if it’s not being offered directly from the author or publisher. Only buy digital downloads from reputable booksellers, for example amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.


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